Friday, April 20, 2018

Poor Scriptwriting in Prometheus

I have previously written about a
common problem in scriptwriting. A writer uses his characters to
advance the plot in a certain direction, pushing them toward actions and decisions that contradict their intelligence and
personalities. Characters become ignorant, stupid, or behave
contrary to their nature.

In poor writing, characters are lifeless puppets to advance the plot. In good writing, characters advance the plot in ways that are consistent with their intelligence, emotions, and situations. Their actions are logically motivated.

In Prometheus (2012), Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green) is a scientist who travels to a distant moon (in another
solar system), hoping to meet an alien race that, he believes,
created humanity. When the spaceship carrying him arrives, Charlie rushes out with his team to explore, despite there only
being six hours of daylight left. Charlie is too eager to wait for the
next day.

Charlie finds a barren terrain and what appears to be "a tomb" (Charlie's word) with several dead aliens. Returning to the ship, Charlie becomes depressed
and drunk. He refuses to attend the autopsy of an alien's head,
because "I didn't come for an autopsy."

Is this a scientist speaking? This is humanity's first contact with an alien species, but Charlie prefers to sulk and ignore history in the making, because he's disappointed not
to have met a live alien. His attitude is that of a child, not a
scientist.

But it gets worse. Not only are Charlie's attitude and emotions poorly motivated, but he's not very intelligent
for a scientist. There is no logical reason to believe that the alien
race is dead.

1. The spaceship just arrived. They've
been on the moon less than a day. The alien "tomb" was
underground. Is it not logical to assume there might be other
places on the moon where aliens are still alive? Perhaps underground? Imagine if an alien
ship landed in the Sahara Desert, and immediately concluded the Earth was barren of all life. Not very bright, is it?

2. Even if the moon is barren, why
assume the alien race is dead? Why assume this moon is
their home world, the only place their civilization existed?
On the contrary, Charlie already knows these aliens are a
star-faring people. They came to Earth. Is it not logical to assume
they'd be scattered among the stars? That this tiny moon was but
a small outpost of their empire? That the reason they left maps on
Earth directing us to this moon was, not because it was their most
important world, but because it was their closest world to Earth?

And indeed, this is what the ship's captain (Idris Elba) concludes much later in the
film. That this moon was but an outpost of the alien's civilization.

Well, duh! I figured that from
the start. It sure took a while for these scientists to come around. Why were they so dense? It's not that I'm smarter.
Real scientists would not have jumped to the conclusion of a
"dead race" after less than a day on that moon.
Well-written fictional scientists would likewise not have been
so quick to make such blatantly false assumptions.

But writers Jon Spaihts and Damon
Lindelof wanted to inject some drama into their story. And also extend the story to feature film length. So they dummied
down their scientists, keeping the scientists stupid until they reached a
turning point in the plot that required them to suddenly wise up.

A final observation. Because the alien
race's intent is evil, Prometheus is
horror, not science fiction. These aliens created humanity, taught
us, invited us to visit them, then wanted to kill us. Horror.

Contrast this to a science fiction film
such as 2001: A Space Odyssey. A similar setup. An alien race
creates us (or at least guides our evolution), teaches us, and
invites us to visit them. But their intent is apparently benevolent,
albeit strange to our limited thinking.